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April 23rd, 2019: The Bikes Are Out And The Bells Are Off

Tuesday Sunny, with a high near 69. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.

Tuesday Night A slight chance of showers before 10pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 10pm and 2am, then a chance of showers after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

For six years, bike messenger Shardy Nieves, 38, has organized the 4/20 Race and Bake relay bike race without any major issues with the NYPD. "At the finish line we have cookies, pizza, cupcakes, local bakeries sometimes sponsor it, it's just a way to bring the community together," Nieves told Gothamist.

But on Saturday afternoon, when Nieves arrived at the starting point for this year's race, Tompkins Square Park, he said he was greeted by name by an NYPD Lieutenant. "The officer had a manila envelope, and inside that envelope was screenshots of my social media and screenshots of the event," Nieves says. A few minutes later, Nieves was in handcuffs.

It's safe to assume we'll be seeing more of this now that young people on bikes are the scapegoat du jour:

As for the assertion that "many of them looking for trouble," mostly they just seem like a bunch of kids riding around and popping wheelies, but it's much easier to vilify and dehumanize them so here we are:

“Let me get this straight. You want to file a report, because you hit a car,” an officer allegedly said to Kadidal. “Do you have evidence it was his fault?”

But then one of the officers told Kadidal that the neighboring precinct would have to take the complaint because the crash was actually in the 24th Precinct, which contains the other side of the street. When cops from that stationhouse finally showed up, they told him they don’t usually press charges if only one person is there to say what happened — and especially if there’s no driver, and no license plate.

It's also why not having a bell on your bike will get it impounded, but using a fake police placard is hardly noteworthy:

The NYPD said the grainy picture of the placard in the car’s front windshield window does not look like an official police placard.

In bike share news, some of the riders injured in pedal-assist Citi Bike crashes are taking legal action:

The Daily News has found eight New Yorkers who racked up medical bills after flipping over the handlebars on electric pedal-assist Citi Bikes. Read some of their accounts here: https://t.co/fLv98CVdk2

“In last year’s pilot, we learned that Staten Islanders love bike share, and we often found that their rides sometimes drifted outside of the North Shore boundaries we set last summer,” said Trottenberg in a statement. “So now that riders have voted with their feet, we want to have the entire island to be available to them."

Staten Island commuters logged 61,000 trips on JUMP and Lime bikes since last summer, according to DOT.

This will officially make the Bronx the most-neglected borough when it comes to bike share availability.

Finally, speaking of the Bronx, there's nothing to see here, just someone using his position to delay a public safety project and advance his own misguided personal agenda:

The Morris Park Avenue Road Diet is being viewed as a proverbial ‘spit in the eye’ to many Morris Park residents. Learn more in our report below: https://t.co/B0a07GwsGc

They’re spending a lot of money on this, money that could have gone to something more beneficial,” D’Angelo said, noting that the DOT rejected the community’s alternative proposals to the road diet offered months earlier.